Bisexual Couch

About

Bisexual Couch refers to a loveseat made by IKEA Canada as part of an LGBTQ+-themed furniture campaign during June of 2021. While IKEA released ten couches inspired by the pride flags of multiple sexualities, the internet's attention was drawn to the "bisexual couch" which featured the words, "When you change OR to AND, nobody believes you." Though the phrase was intended to be relatable to bisexuals' struggle to convince others of their sexuality, it was joked about online for reading like a judgmental indictment of bisexuality, while others mocked the couch's design in general.

Origin

On June 28th, 2021, IKEA Canada released ten loveseats inspired by pride flags of various sexualities.^[1] That day, Twitter user @mayamona_^[2] posted a screenshot of the loveseats, saying, "The Ikea pride collection is so insanely cool???" (shown below). The post gained over 18,000 retweets, 22,000 quote-tweets, and 143,000 likes.

Spread

Quickly, Twitter users' eyes were drawn to the loveseat inspired by the bisexual flag, which featured the words "When you change OR to AND, nobody believes you." Several users commented the phrase seemed more biphobic than bi-positive. User @jaynooch^[3] tweeted, "I dare you to think of anything funnier you could put on a bi themed couch than 'nobody believes you,'" gaining over 5,100 retweets and 57,000 likes (shown below, left). User @smoreyellow^[4] tweeted, "come on down to the ikea warehouse to purchase your very own biphobic couch so that you too can live with a constant, overbearing reminder that 𝗡 𝗢 𝗕 𝗢 𝗗 𝗬 𝗕 𝗘 𝗟 𝗜 𝗘 𝗩 𝗘 𝗦 𝗬 𝗢 𝗨" (shown below, right).

The quote comes from a Twitter user named Brian, @braino_draino^[5] on Twitter, who explained that the phrase was "from a poem I wrote in high school about bisexual erasure I experienced from an ex-partner and others… for those confused by the excerpt from the poem, the original full line is 'it’s okay to love boys or girls, but when you change ‘or’ to ‘and’, nobody believes you.'"

Others mocked the couch's design by using it as an exploitable. User @fivepoisonskid^[6] edited the couch to include Shinji from Neon Genesis Evangelion, gaining over 6,300 retweets and 38,000 likes (shown below, left). User @wonderpetsfan1^[7] edited the photo to look like the couch belonged in a horror film, gaining over 280 retweets and 1,700 likes (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References